Unlike in past games, Animal Crossing: New Horizons (ACNH) introduced a new feature where, axes, shovels, fishing rods, nets, watering cans, and slingshots can break after a few uses.

Read on each tool's durability and when a specific tool will break.

List of All Tools Durability

Click to jump to a section!
Axes	Shovels	Fishing Rods
Nets	Watering Cans	Slingshots
Other Tools

Axe Durability

Item	Durability
Flimsy Axe	40 Uses
Stone Axe	100 Uses
Axe	100 Uses
Golden Axe	200 Uses

An Axe will lose durability when chopping wood and hitting rocks.

Though swinging an axe in air will not lose durability, you may want to lay off doing that to avoid looking like a serial killer.

How to Chop Wood

Shovel Durability

Item	Durability
Flimsy Shovel	40 Uses
Shovel	100 Uses
Golden Shovel	200 Uses
Outdoorsy Shovel	100 Uses
Colorful Shovel	100 Uses
Printed-Design Shovel	100 Uses

A Shovel will lose durability when digging up buried items and hitting rocks.

Using a shovels to plant flowers and starts or bury item will not affect durability.

How to Hit the Rocks

Fishing Rod Durability

Item	Durability
Flimsy Fishing Rod	10 Uses
Fishing Rod	30 Uses
Golden Fishing Rod	90 Uses
Outdoorsy Fishing Rod	30 Uses
Colorful Fishing Rod	30 Uses
Fish Fishing Rod	30 Uses

A Fishing Rod will only lose durability after catching a fish.

Reeling in your line without a fish will not affect durability.

How to Catch Fish

Net Durability

Item	Durability
Flimsy Net	10 Uses
Net	30 Uses
Golden Net	90 Uses
Outdoorsy Net	30 Uses
Colorful Net	30 Uses
Star Net	30 Uses

A Net will only lose durability after catching a bug.

Using your net to hit objects and villager will not affect durability, but watch where you swing!

How to Catch Bugs

Watering Can Durability

Item	Durability
Flimsy Watering Can	20 Uses
Watering Can	60 Uses
Golden Watering Can	180 Uses
Outdoorsy Watering Can	60 Uses
Colorful Watering Can	60 Uses
Elephant Watering Can	60 Uses

A Watering Can will only lose durability after watering flowers and pumpkins.

Watering other objects, such as starts, trees, and the ground, will not affect durability

How to Plant Flowers

Slingshot Durability

Item	Durability
Slingshot	20 Uses
Golden Slingshot	60 Uses
Outdoorsy Slingshot	20 Uses
Colorful Slingshot	20 Uses

A Slingshot will only lose durability when after popping a ballons.

Missing your shot at a balloon will not affect durability.

How to Get Presents from Balloons

Other Tools Durability

Other tools like the Ladder, Vaulting Pole, and various Wands are unbreakable and do not have durability.

Use these items as much as you like!

List of All Wands and How to Use Them

List of Golden Tools and Durability

Item	Durability
Golden Axe	200 Uses
Golden Shovel	200 Uses
Golden Fishing Rod	90 Uses
Golden Net	90 Uses
Golden Watering Can	180 Uses
Golden Slingshot	60 Uses

Golden Tools offer the best durability in Animal Crossing: New Horizons (ACNH)! The only downside is that they can still break.

Though they'll last a lot longer than regular tools, you may want to consider saving your Gold Nuggets for other DIYs.

How to Get Gold Nuggets

How to Increase Tool Durability

Upgrade Flimsy Tool

Flimsy Tools may be the weakest tools, but you can upgrade them to their stronger variants at the DIY workbench! Once you've crafted your tool, you'll have a completely new tool with better durability!

Reset the Durability with Customization

If you know that your tools only has a few uses left, you can customize your tools to reset its durabilty!

Head to a DIY workbench with some Customization Kits in hand and choose the color you want! Once customized, you'll get back the durability of a brand new tool.

Cannot Customize All Tools

However, not all tools can be customized. See all the tools you can customize on the list below.

Shovel	Outdoorsy Shovel	Colorful Shovel	Printed-Design Shovel
Fishing Rod	Outdoorsy Fishing Rod	Colorful Fishing Rod	Fish Fishing Rod
Net	Outdoorsy Net	Colorful Net	Star Net
Watering Can	Outdoorsy Watering Can	Colorful Watering Can	Elephant Watering Can
Slingshot	Outdoorsy Slingshot	Colorful Slingshot

How to Customize Tools and Other Items

Related Guides

All Tips & Tricks

Gameplay Basics

Gameplay Basics
How to Know a Tool's Durability	What Happens When You Eat Fruit?
How to Get Rid of a Bee Sting	What Happens When You Faint?
When Does a New Day Start?	How to Use the Camera
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How to Get the Nook Shopping App	Wind and Weather Guide
How and When to See Aurora Borealis	How to Unlock the Pro Camera App
How to use Custom Designs Patterns+